RICS and Amity establish India’s first 'School of Built Environment'

To address the shortage of skilled manpower in real estate, more than 200 Indian property developers have associated with Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which has tied-up with Amity University to open India’s first institute in NOIDA that will provide education in real estate, construction and infrastructure related disciplines.

The School will also offer Management Development Programs to meet the training and development requirements of existing professionals in sector.

Inaugurating the RICS School of Built Environment, Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Urban Development said, “One of the biggest challenges facing the real-estate, construction and infrastructure sectors is that of good human resources. The school will enable quality and relevant education for young professionals entering this sector. I also look forward to the School of Built Environment creating ‘next practices’ which in turn will lead to ‘best practices’ for the industry.”

Commenting on the new school, Sachin Sandhir, MD-RICS South Asia said, “Built environment is severely being impacted by a demand-supply mismatch of professionals. The projected shortage of various core and specialized professionals to the tune of 44 million is a cause for significant concern, as it threatens the sustainability of high growth sectors of real-estate, construction and infrastructure, which contribute significantly to the nation’s economic development.

“Around 200 real estate developers including DLF, Hiranandani, Unitech, Shapoorji Pallonji and Raheja have participated in developing curriculum for the institute. They have also been involved in developing case studies whether it is Terminal 3 project or metros,” said Sachin.

RICS also announced the appointment of Prof. K.T. Ravindran as Dean of the RICS School of Built Environment, AmityUniversity. An internationally acclaimed academician, he has over 30 years experience in academia, and was the former Dean of the School of Planning and Architecture and the Chairman of the Delhi Urban Arts Commission. He is also the founder and President of the Institute of Urban Designers – India, which is a professional association of qualified urban designers. 

Globally, the built environment sector accounts for 10% of the work force, 70% of wealth, 60% of all utilized materials, 40% of carbon emissions and 60% of energy utilization. In India, the sector accounts for nearly 17.5%* of the GDP, second only to agriculture and is the second largest employer with over 50 million people working in built environment. 

The institute will start operating from August in Amity’s Noida campus and will initially provide three specialized courses. The first batch will have 135 students. The industry body expects this number to reach 700-800 per year in the next few years. RICS may open a second campus in two years in either Mumbai or Bangalore.